The latest Yacht sail developments and race news
Click here for more news stories
Part B: training on the Clipper 68s
Friday, 18 September 2009
After Part A, there was more intensive training to follow for competitors before they can compete in the Race itself, as Tom Gruitt explains...
"For the Part B Clipper training we were on the Clipper 68s, the same boats used for the race. My skipper this week was Eero Lehtinen on Team Finland.
"The race boats are only eight feet longer than the 60s but feel so much bigger down below, the flat wide deck also makes it a lot easier to move around. We came back to shore every night on our Part B, we were mainly doing tacking and boat handling drills all week to get used to the different layout of the race boats.
"The Part B training really built upon the skills that were taught in the previous course, it also applied them more to the racing side of sailing rather than just making the boat move. Again there were lectures in the evening recapping all of the days activities and learning rules of racing.
"Another highlight of the week was learning and practicing how to do a Le Mans start, this is the type of start used in the race quite often. It means you all line up close hauled with the mainsail up, the staysail and yankee lay rigged on the deck ready to be hoisted. On the word 'GO' everyone rushes to their pre assigned stations to hoist the foresails as fast as possible. The crew to get them up and sheeted in the fastest pulls away pretty quickly.
"All of our racing knowledge was put to use on the last day with us racing againt other Part B crew from Gilkicker Point, around the Nab Tower and back again, a mandatory reef in the mainsail had and a headsail change from the No2 to the No3 had to be completed at some point in the race, this was great practice of a sail change under pressure.
"Again the week culminated with a deep clean of the boat, still not my favourite task, I'm sure I'll get used to it though!"
Tom Gruitt joins the race in La Rochelle on Sunday September 20th for the start of the leg to Rio in Brazil.
posted by Hyde Sails at
02:00
Designed & Built by ProAction Creative Ltd.